WAEH Community of Practice – Nurses & Allied Health Personnel | 30 April 2026
On Thursday 30 April 2026, the WAEH held its Community of Practice on Nurses & Allied Health Personnel, led by Tendai Gwenhure, Senior Clinical Educator from Moorfields Eye Hospital (London, United Kingdom) and Diana Malata, Advanced Nurse from Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (Dublin, Ireland). The session brought together ophthalmic nurses and allied health professionals from the United Kingdom, Rwanda, the United States, Australia, Saudi Arabia, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, India and beyond.
Lisa Coton, Nurse specialist from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (Miami, United States), opened the session with a perspective on thyroid eye disease (TED), emphasizing both its clinical complexity and emotional impact. Her presentation underscored the importance of early recognition, patient education, and multidisciplinary coordination, while highlighting how the Caritas Caring Science framework developed by Dr. Jean Watson – a nurse theorist who created the Caritas Framework and had long-lasting influence on nursing worldwide – strengthens care through empathy, presence, and trust. This approach demonstrated that combining clinical expertise with compassionate engagement leads to better patient outcomes and experiences.
Catherine Mancuso, Manager Diagnostic Eye Services from the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (Melbourne, Australia) presented her WAEH project about the development of a framework and toolkit for advanced practice orthoptists in eye hospitals worldwide, in which the role of orthoptists is expanded to co-manage selected patients typically seen by ophthalmologists. This project is a collaboration with Karen Zhang Kailin, Principal Orthoptist from Singapore National Eye Centre, one of our founding members since the establishment of the WAEH.
Subsequently, Enas AlAmri, Director of Patient Experience at our member the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) presented her WAEH project about improving accessibility for visually impaired patients through practical guidelines and staff training, discussing how targeted interventions can enhance safety, inclusion, and overall patient experience.
Across the session, a consistent message emerged: nurses are central not only to clinical care, but to coordination, education, and the human experience of patients navigating eye disease. The three presentations illustrated the breadth of nursing impact, from bedside compassion to system-level transformation.
Read the full report and watch the full recording on the Knowledge Hub website (for members only).
The Community of Practice for Nurses & Allied Health Personnel will come together online again on 29 October 2026 and on site during the 20th WAEH Annual Meeting from 9-13 November 2026 in São Paulo (Brazil).Read more about the Communities of Practice here.